Office Killer

Dimension is trying to pitch Office Killer as a "dark comedy" and a "campy thriller"...which, it turns out, is publicist-speak for a distasteful, poorly constructed and miserably acted film which is endurable only if you accept that the whole thing is a huge gag. Carol Kane stars as Dorine, a mousy assistant at a magazine who is down-sized to a part-time at-home worker. That gives her too much time alone with her thoughts and her ailing mother (Alice Drummond), inspiring her to acts of homicidal vengeance on her co-workers. I suppose Office Killer might have been conceived--and might have worked--as a grim cautionary tale about corporate callousness, warning that a disgruntled psycho-in-waiting could be just around the cubicle. Unfortunately, this film tries far too hard for psychological "relevance," making Dorine a troubled incest survivor who creates a home office out of the decomposing, cat-gnawed bodies of her victims. Kane is far too inately goofy a presence for the story to work as drama, and the approach to the material is too straight for it to work as comedy. And it's almost painful watching Molly Ringwald and Jeanne Tripplehorn try to salvage some dignity from their irredeemable characters. After the evocative opening credits, it's all downhill into Unpleasantville. Not recommended. (S. Renshaw)